A Reagan Doctrine for the Twenty-First Century - by Matthew Continetti: "What to do? The time has come for a revised strategy towards Russia, the greatest military and ideological threat to the United States and to the world order it has built over decades as guarantor of international security. We’ve faced a similar problem before. To create a freer and richer world, not the United States but Russia must be knocked back on its heels... It takes a set of moral blinders the size of the president’s ego not to recognize today’s Russia as America’s enemy. There is no other power as devoted to undermining U.S. authority and prestige and interests—from subverting the NATO alliance to replacing us as the dominant external power in the Middle East to hacking our technological infrastructure to harboring the fugitive Edward Snowden. As America has waned, Putin has waxed. And so for America to wax, Putin must wane."
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A Reagan Doctrine for the Twenty-First Centuryby Matthew Continetti
From Sweden in the Baltic to Tartus in the Mediterranean, Russian forces are on the offensive. The consensus among U.S. officials not beholden to the White House is that Mitt Romney was right. Vladimir Putin’s Russia is the most dangerous threat to America.
And not only to America: Russia’s attempts to reclaim its empire spread conflict and misery, prolong war, destabilize the postwar alliance system that has brought security and prosperity to the world, and erode Western values such as freedom, equality, and individualism. Though Russia may no longer espouse global communist revolution, the consequences of its militarism and aggression are not limited to a small geographic area. The Comintern is gone. But the goals of dominating the Eurasian heartland, Finlandizing Europe, and isolating and challenging the United States have returned. The stronger Putin becomes, the more despotic, poorer, and more corrupt is the world.
Except for sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the occasional scolding, President Obama has been uninterested in retaliating against imperialism and deterring further aggression. He holds the view that history will expose Putin as a pretender and fool, and that Russia will be bogged down in a Syrian quagmire just as it was bogged down in Afghanistan long ago. What Obama forgets is that the Soviet Union’s defeat in Afghanistan came about because the United States financed and equipped anti-Soviet forces—a course of action he has rejected since the Syrian uprising began in 2011.
Obama’s supporters note that there is no clear U.S. ally in the Syrian conflict. Obviously not, since the president did nothing to identify and assist potentially friendly anti-regime Sunnis when the war began. Nor has he aided fully those few groups—“Syrian Kurds close to Turkey, moderate forces supported by Jordan close to its border, and small number of other moderate Syrians”—that, at least rhetorically, the United States backs today.
Obama’s critics, meanwhile, are concerned with tactics. Both Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio have called for America to impose a no-fly zone over Syria. They’re several years too late. A no-fly zone might have worked at the beginning of the conflict, as part of a strategy of coercive diplomacy to remove Bashar al-Assad and reach some sort of power-sharing agreement among Syrian tribes. Now, with Su-25s flying unrestricted over Syria, a no-fly zone would be greeted by the Russians as a nonstarter.
Worse, it would invite direct confrontation with the Russians, who are already buzzing NATO airspace from their new southern flank. Putin would like nothing more than to humiliate America over the skies of Raqqah. A no-fly zone is also superfluous. Our forces are already operating above parts of Syria—we could establish safe-havens at any time without asking for Russian permission. The problem isn’t our capabilities. It’s our lack of will.
What to do? The time has come for a revised strategy towards Russia, the greatest military and ideological threat to the United States and to the world order it has built over decades as guarantor of international security. We’ve faced a similar problem before. To create a freer and richer world, not the United States but Russia must be knocked back on its heels.
That is exactly what Ronald Reagan did in the final years of the Cold War. What is required today is a Reagan Doctrine for the twenty-first century—a comprehensive military, diplomatic, and cultural approach that elevates America’s stature and diminishes Russia’s.
I can hear liberals already: Reagan, they’ll say, was not a warrior but a peacemaker. Didn’t he negotiate with Gorbachev, didn’t he offer at Reykjavik to eliminate all ICBMs in exchange for the right of strategic defense? And so he did. But to focus only on Reagan’s diplomacy is to suffer from historical myopia. It is to ignore Reagan’s first term in favor of his second.
The hawkish policies Reagan enacted between 1981 and 1985 gave him the economic, political, and military leverage to become friends with Gorbachev later. And only with Gorbachev: During Reagan’s first term, three Soviet leaders preceded the author of glasnost and perestroika. The president didn’t meet with any of them. “They keep dying on me,” he liked to say.
In their moral disapproval of force, in their fallacious belief that human beings of every nation and every government share the same values and interests, liberals forget that every diplomatic solution is based on the balance or preponderance of military power. It is the weaker party that seeks negotiations—just as Europe and the United States, consumed by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, did after Russia’s invasion of Georgia. Just as President Obama, preoccupied with ending the Middle Eastern wars and resolving the financial crisis, attempted his reset with Russia. Just as Europe and the United States, in the grip of anomie and malaise, have sought to freeze the conflict in Ukraine and “de-conflict” the escalating war in Syria.
Let’s reverse the equation.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan, during a brief visit to London, June 8, 1982, makes his address to Britain’s Houses of Parliament, in the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster / AP
Like the strategy pursued by our fortieth president more than 30 years ago, a twenty-first-century Reagan Doctrine would have three parts:
Military buildup. President Reagan reversed the degradation and demoralization of the U.S. armed forces. The defense budget in his first term more than doubled. Yes, there was waste. But more important than the $400 toilet seat were the B1 bomber, the stealth fighter, the Trident submarine, and hundreds of F-14s and F-15s. Defense spending created jobs, inspired patriotism, and laid the foundation for American success in Operation Desert Storm and the Balkan wars. We use many of these platforms to this day.
The gusher of weapons scared our enemies. “The scale and pace of the American buildup under Reagan,” writes Henry Kissinger in Diplomacy, “reinforced all the doubts already in the minds of the Soviet leadership as a result of debacles in Afghanistan and Africa, about whether they could afford the arms race economically and—even more important—whether they could sustain it technologically.”
Who now holds such doubts? The trajectory of U.S. troop numbers and defense budgets is downward. The “sequester” is about to take a huge bite of the Pentagon’s resources. Our ability to fight in two theaters at once, a pillar of postwar American defense policy, is in doubt.
“Just as the threats have become visible and undeniable,” write the authors of “To Rebuild America’s Military,” a new American Enterprise Institute report, “the United States is continuing to cut the armed forces dramatically, having imposed the cuts through an extraordinary means—a law imposing arbitrary limits on parts of the federal budget and employing the mindless tool of sequestration—with no analysis whatsoever of the impact on the nation’s security.”
The AEI scholars recommend a return to the level of defense spending proposed by Robert Gates, and the gradual build to “an affordable floor of 4 percent of gross domestic product that would sustain the kind of military America needs.” These numbers might not be as shocking as Reagan’s. But at least they would reverse the hollowing out of the force. And they would grab the attention of the Kremlin.
Both left and right are likely to oppose more spending on the grounds of debt and deficits. For the left to make this critique is disingenuous—their leading economists say deficits do not matter in the current economic environment and call for an expansionary fiscal policy. What the right needs to understand is that deficit reduction and balanced budgets are worthy goals in a time of peace. And peacetime this is not.
President Ronald Reagan addressing the National Association of Evangelicals in a speech calling the Soviet Union an evil empire / Diana Walker/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Strategic Weapons. Vladimir Putin plays ICBM politics. His regime holds nuclear retaliation as its ultimate trump in negotiations—and while the Russians have not played this card, oh how they love to show it.
The U.S. response is naïve. Not to mention contradictory. It combines idealistic calls for nuclear abolition with hapless and toothless diplomacy that does little to stop Iran from spinning centrifuges, North Korea from building more bombs, and Russia from violating treaty commitments.
We forget we hold nuclear cards, too. This is a fact Reagan did not lose sight of. “The two strategic decisions which contributed most to ending the Cold War,” writes Kissinger, “were NATO’s deployment of American intermediate-range missiles in Europe and the American commitment to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).”
Keep the Pershing IIs on hold (for now). But please update and modernize our nuclear forces, which exist in an embarrassing state of disrepair and neglect. And do not forget the importance of strategic defense: Development of anti-ballistic missile technologies would be a highly controversial, and highly important, part of any renewed defense buildup. The broadening of the missile shield reassures allies—and worries Russia.
Not only would a revitalized and advanced nuclear force, coupled with increased funding and enlargement of strategic defense, assert U.S. supremacy, deter adversaries, and develop innovative technologies. It would also bring political benefits to whoever proposed it.
When Reagan announced SDI in the spring of 1983, notes Kissinger, “The experts had all the technical arguments on their side, but Reagan had got hold of an elemental political truth: In a world of nuclear weapons, leaders who make no effort to protect their peoples against accident, mad opponents, nuclear proliferation, and a whole host of other foreseeable dangers invite the opprobrium of posterity if disaster ever does occur.”
The president’s duty is to ensure that it does not—not by terrorists who desire weapons of mass destruction, not by the states that possess them.
Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan points to the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor in background as he campaigns at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, N.J., Sept. 1, 1980 / AP
Insurgency. It was Charles Krauthammer who coined the phrase “Reagan Doctrine” in an April 1985 essay for Time magazine. The article described Reagan’s support for anticommunist forces in Nicaragua, Angola, Afghanistan, and beyond. Some of those forces, like Solidarity in Poland, truly were democratic. Others, like the mujahedin, were the enemies of our enemy—and thus, in specific circumstances, worthy of our help.
It takes a set of moral blinders the size of the president’s ego not to recognize today’s Russia as America’s enemy. There is no other power as devoted to undermining U.S. authority and prestige and interests—from subverting the NATO alliance to replacing us as the dominant external power in the Middle East to hacking our technological infrastructure to harboring the fugitive Edward Snowden. As America has waned, Putin has waxed. And so for America to wax, Putin must wane.
We must arm his enemies. That means deadly weapons and massive financial aid to Ukraine. Forward bases in the Baltics. And the sending of arms and cash to the Syrian rebels his jets are strafing. Not even the liberal Vox.com pretends that Putin is going after ISIS; why should our government?
Imposing costs on Putin requires dealing with unsavory people. It risks unforeseen consequences, some potentially negative. But the actual consequences of the policy being pursued at the moment—ongoing war, regional destabilization, humanitarian chaos, Islamic radicalization, and erosion of U.S. leadership and credibility—are worse.
The insurgency launched by Reagan was not limited to arms. It also had an ideological component. “The Reagan Doctrine has been widely understood to mean only support for anticommunist guerillas fighting pro-Soviet regimes, but from the first the doctrine had a broader meaning. Support for anticommunist guerillas was the logical outgrowth, not the origin, of a policy of supporting democratic reform or revolution everywhere, in countries ruled by right-wing dictators as well as by communist parties,” says Robert Kagan in A Twilight Struggle.
Speaking forthrightly and proudly of liberal values, and condemning their abuse within the Russian sphere of influence, is a requirement of any foreign policy associated with Ronald Reagan. As Secretary of State George Shultz put it in 1985: “The forces of democracy around the world merit our standing with them. To abandon them would be a shameful betrayal—a betrayal not only of brave men and women but of our highest ideals.”
Standing with the forces of democracy is not the same as calling for elections everywhere. Elections are not the beginning of the policy. They are its endpoint. The beginning is in the rhetorical promotion of individual freedoms, in renewed financial support for nongovernmental organizations promoting civil society and an independent media, in education in the habits and traditions of the West.
The Kremlin spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year on a global propaganda network that spreads conspiracy theories, distorts reality, and incites suspicion and hatred of the United States and its representative democracy. And that is just Russia—China and Qatar have similar operations. We have nothing that bears comparison. The main Putin network, RT, has more employees than the Voice of America. We are disarming ourselves not only materially but also ideologically. This must end.
The agenda I have outlined would cost quite a bit of money. It would involve America with some morally suspect individuals. The debate over it would be heated. There would be reprisals.
But the Reagan Doctrine was all of those things, too. And it worked. “The Reagan Doctrine proclaims overt and unashamed American support for anti-Communist revolution,” Krauthammer wrote in 1985. “The grounds are justice, necessity, and democratic tradition.” Replace anti-Communist with anti-authoritarian, and what has changed? If we are to reestablish American ideals, American interests, and American pride, we must hurt the bad guys, and overtly and unashamedly revise the Reagan Doctrine for a new American century.
Putin? He is one bad guy. So let’s take off our gloves.
The post A Reagan Doctrine for the Twenty-First Century appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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LONDON (AP) - Defense Secretary Ash Carter confirms the U.S. has indications that four Russian cruise missiles crashed in Iran rather than Syria, suggesting there were malfunctions.
It's the first public comment by a U.S. official on the cruise missile failures.
Carter is speaking at a press conference in London ...
Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news.
IRAQ and SYRIA
ISIS has killed Iranian military commander Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani on the outskirts of Aleppo, the Iranian military has said. [Al Jazeera]
The militants have seized a number of villages on the outskirts of Aleppo from rival insurgencies, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who added that it was the biggest advance on the city by ISIS since August. [Reuters]
NATO used tough language to discuss Moscow’s involvement in the Syrian crisis, saying it would exacerbate the violence there. Speaking at NATO meetings in Brussels, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter suggested that intervention will have consequences for Russia itself. [Wall Street Journal’s Julian E. Barnes and Gordon Lubold;Guardian’s Julian Borger et al]
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with the Russian foreign minister yesterday, repeating US concerns about Russian targets in Syria and discussed the need for a tactical dialogue toward the goal of deconfliction between the two countries. [Reuters]
Moscow has rejected claims that cruise missiles fired from a warship in the Caspian sea aimed at Syrian targets fell short and landed in Iran. Anonymous US sources on Thursday claimed that 26 missiles landed in rural Iran. [The Guardian] Russia’s use of Kalibr ship-launched cruise missiles demonstrates an important new military capability. [New York Times’ Patrick J. Lyons] The missile attack was in many ways an announcement to the world that “the once-dilapidated Russian navy is back in action,” writes David Axe. [The Daily Beast]
Russia risks “stir[ing] the wrath of Islamic radicals” through its bombing campaign in Syria, according to US intelligence officials who warn that the country may face terrorist attacks on home soil. [Politico’s Michael Crowley]
The Assad regime is trying to force the West’s hand in Syria, pushing it into a situation where it has to choose between the Islamic State and the Syrian government, reports Sam Dagher. [Wall Street Journal]
France carried out new strikes overnight targeting an Islamic State training camp in Syria, and further airstrikes are expected to follow, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said today. [Reuters]
US-led airstrikes continue. The US and partner military forces conducted two airstrikes targeting Islamic State positions in Syria on Oct. 7. Separately, military forces carried out a further 18 strikes on targets in Iraq. [Central Command]
Russian intervention in Syria threatens three key US goals: “stabilizing Syria, containing ISIL, and constructing a durable balance of power in the Middle East,” writes Thomas Graham, proposing a five-part strategy for a “US policy of resistance and cooperation.” [Politico]
“How America can counter Putin’s moves in Syria,” explained by former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and former defense secretary Robert M. Gates. [Washington Post]
“[F]oreign policy rarely favors the bold, even if the headline writers do.” Jeremy Shapiro argues that in the end, Russian involvement will “worsen the violence, inflame terrorism and risk dragging the Russians into a quagmire.” [New York Times]
Three reasons explaining “Russia’s foray into Syria,” from Steven Erlanger at the New York Times.
“Who backs whom in the Syrian conflict,” from the Guardian.
AFGHANISTAN
The death toll from the US airstrike on a Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz is likely to rise, with 33 people still missing five days after the attack including 24 staff members. [AFP]
Could the MSF bombing be prosecuted as a war crime? Tom McCarthy considers the law and the practicability of that avenue of accountability, at the Guardian.
US and NATO leaders expressed a willingness to consider extending the mission in Afghanistan past next year, including the need to rethink the number of American troops that should remain in the country. [Wall Street Journal’s Julian E. Barnes and Gordon Lubold]
“Pakistan has mastered the art of pretending to help the United States while actually supporting its most deadly foes,” opines Fareed Zakaria, suggesting that Afghanistan’s consistently fragile state is as a result of this situation. [Washington Post]
ISRAEL and PALESTINE
Three Palestinians and two Israelis have been wounded in the most recent violence across Israel. Haaretz has live updates of the situation.
Fresh restrictions on Palestinian entry into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound have been imposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today in light of heightened violence. [Al Jazeera]
National Security Adviser Susan Rice’s “combative mind-set” damaged US relations with Israel’s prime minister, according to former Obama Middle East adviser Dennis B. Ross in his new book. [New York Times’ Peter Baker]
LIBYA
Libya’s UN envoy has announced a national unity government for the country following months of challenging talks between the country’s two rival governments. [AP] MPs from both parliaments have voiced doubts over the announcement, expressing concern that it was premature. [BBC]
The Islamic State in Libya has been described as a “hybrid operation”, led partly by foreign fighters who have gained experience on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Missy Ryan and Hassan Morajea discuss the expansion of the extremist group into the already chaotic country, at the Washington Post.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
The Obama administration has decided to hold off and will not call for legislation requiring tech companies to decode messages for law enforcement. Instead, the White House will continue to encourage companies to create ways for government to access customers’ encrypted data, essentially maintaining the status quo. [Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima and Andrea Peterson]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an audit of the interactions between the UN and the Global Sustainability Foundation and the Sun Kian Ip Group by the Office of Internal Oversight Services. The request comes in the wake of bribery allegations against a former president of the General Assembly by US prosecutors. [UN News Centre] The announcement is a turnaround from the earlier position of the international body; the organization said it did not have the mandate to conduct such an investigation yesterday. [Wall Street Journal’s Farnaz Fassihi]
The UN Security Council is expected to adopt a resolution today authorizing European militaries to “inspect” and “seize” vessels suspected of being used for human trafficking. The authorization will only apply to the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea. [New York Times’ Somini Sengupta]
A federal court has refused State Department efforts to combine dozens of pending lawsuits related to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s private email server. [The Hill’s Julian Hattem]
The immediate end of bulk surveillance can be likened to the sudden release of criminals from prison, according to Justice Department attorney Julia Berman, reports Jenna McLaughlin. [The Intercept]
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has dropped out of the race for House Speaker, citing the controversy surrounding his comments about the political motivations of the select committee on Benghazi. [Foreign Policy’s David Francis and Lara Jakes]
Yemen does not need statements of “deep concern” from the Obama administration, but rather needs the US to adopt a “radically different course,” withdrawing support from the Saudi-led coalition, demanding the free flow of commercial goods into ports and garnering support at the UN Security Council for an immediate, complete ceasefire to end the conflict, writes Paul O’Brien. [Foreign Policy]
Guantánamo Bay detention facility is facing shortages in basic supplies, and has increasingly been accepting contributions from attorneys for the prisoners, reports Carol Rosenberg, posing the question whether someone is “pinching pennies” at the camp. [Miami Herald]
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 Washington Post |
In a first, Chinese hackers are arrested at the behest of the US government
Washington Post At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Director of National IntelligenceJames R. Clapper Jr. said that if China does not stick to its pledge and continues to filch U.S. commercial secrets for its own industries' benefit, economic ... |
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FBI Chief: News Media Has Better Data on Police Shootings Than Government
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LONDON (AP) — The U.S. will overhaul the failed Syrian rebel training program, working more closely with capable Kurdish and other forces in Syria, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Friday.
No details were immediately available, but the $500 million program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels to fight ...
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The Obama administration has shuttered the $500 million Pentagon program to arm and train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State in an acknowledgement of its failure.
The program will be swapped with one that would involve establishing a significantly smaller center in Turkey where the United States will train members of opposition groups in how to call in airstrikes, according to officials.
The New York Times reported:
A senior Defense Department official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that there would no longer be any more recruiting of so-called moderate Syrian rebels to go through training programs in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. Instead, a much smaller training center would be set up in Turkey, where a small group of “enablers”–mostly leaders of opposition groups–would be taught operational maneuvers like how to call in airstrikes.
The Pentagon has been planning to overhaul the training program after Gen. Lloyd Austin, the the top military commander of Middle East operations, admitted that the program had produced only four or five U.S.-trained Syrian rebels still fighting the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL or ISIS) in the Middle East.
The Department of Defense originally had the goal of training as many as 5,400 Syrian troops in 2015 and 15,000 over the next three years when the program began last December. The U.S. Central Command has also acknowledged that some of the U.S.-armed Syrian rebels gave their equipment to the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, al Nusra.
“I wasn’t happy with the early efforts,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said of the program Friday at a news conference in London at the end of a five-day stay in Europe.
“So we have devised a number of different approaches,” he added. “I think you’ll be hearing from President Obama very shortly.”
Anonymous U.S. officials said that Obama approved of the end to the program during meetings with advisers last week.
The post Obama Administration Ends $500M Syrian Rebel Training Program appeared first onWashington Free Beacon.
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President Obama is expected to announce a new plan for building Syrian moderate forces.
The United States and its allies have conducted over 5,000 airstrikes against the so-called Islamic State since August 2014. Even though the air campaign has prevented ISIS from expanding its territorial gains on the ground, it has not deterred foreign fighters from joining the group in droves.
A recent report from the Homeland Security Committee estimates that there were at least 3,500 foreign fighters in Syria and northern Iraq in 2012.
The post Where Syria & Iraq’s Foreign Fighters Come From [Infographic] appeared first on In Homeland Security.
 U.S. News & World Report (blog) |
Why the U.S. Can Do Little in the Face of Russia's Aggression in Syria
U.S. News & World Report (blog) That incongruity has become particularly stark now, with Russians having intervened overtly on the side of Assad, whom they consider an ally. What the Russians have exposed, however, is not just a flaw in America's Syria policy – the problem goes ... Britain to station troops in Baltic region 'to deter Russian aggression'The Guardian Britain |
Russia 'making Syria more dangerous', Michael Fallon saysBBC News
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Russia's Threat
Town Hall Thanks to the administration's dithering on Syria, Russia now has 30 warplanes in the air that are launching attacks on anti-Bashar Assad rebels, and soon there may be troops on the ground -- "volunteers" like the ones Russia has employed against Ukraine. and more » |
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Turning point? EU Commission head says relations with Russian 'must be ...
RT It is now critical for the EU to work on its relations with Russia, Juncker said in the southern German town of Passau: “We must make efforts towards a practical relationship with Russia. It is not sexy but that must be the case, we can't go on like ... The West must 'treat Russia properly': JunckerYahoo News |
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 Daily Star |
Russia tests ray gun that can BLIND enemies as it battles Islamic State
Daily Star It will provide cover for troops by dazzling enemies and sabotaging hostile reconnaissance attempts. The "visual optical jammer" named Grach has four projectors and can be remotely controlled by crews. The device was revealed at a military expo in ... and more » |
 СЕГОДНЯ |
«Ъ»: Столтенберг призвал Россию отозвать признание Абхазии и Южной Осетии
Газета.Ru В ходе заседания совместной комиссии Грузия-НАТО генеральный секретарь альянса Йенс Столтенберг призвал Россию отказаться отказаться от признания независимости Абхазии и Южной Осетии, пишет «Коммерсантъ». Министр обороны Грузии Тинатин Хидашели отметила, что ... НАТО призвало РФ отменить "независимость" Абхазии и Южной ОсетииСЕГОДНЯ НАТО призвал РФ отменить признание независимости Абхазии и Южной ОсетииУКРАИНСКАЯ ПРАВДА НАТО: Москва должна аннулировать признание независимости Абхазии и Южной ОсетииРоссийский Диалог ИД Алтапресс-РИА "Новый Регион" Все похожие статьи: 83 » |
 NBCNews.com |
As Russia Bombs Syria, US Pulls Aircraft Carrier Out of Persian Gulf
NBCNews.com As Russian warships rain down cruise missiles as part of its military strike in Syria, there's now a glaring absence in the region: For the first time since 2007, the U.S. Navy has no aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. Military officials said ... and more » |
Angela Merkel is often referred to as the world's most influential politician but could Vladimir Putin have more power on the world stage? King's College London academics explain which leaders they think hold the power over world events
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Russia denies missiles aimed at Syria landed in Iranby Staff and agencies
Moscow disputes US reports that cruise missiles fired at Syrian targets from warship in Caspian sea fell short of target
Russia has denied cruise missiles fired at Syrian targets from a warship in the Caspian sea fell short of their target and landed in Iran.
Anonymous US sources claimed on Thursday that four of 26 missiles had landed in a rural part of the country although it was unclear exactly where. Northern Iran and Iraq are on the 900-mile (1,450km) flight path to Syria.
Continue reading... BBC News |
Russia's Syrian bombing gives boost to Iran
BBC News While Russian cruise missiles were flying over Iran towards targets in Syria on Wednesday, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was delivering a strongly worded speech ruling out the need for further political dialogue with the US. "Talking ... NATO denounces 'troubling' Russian escalation in SyriaWashington Post all 167 news articles » |
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Antigovernment Syrian activists say militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) movement have captured several villages near the city of Allepo.
Obama Slams 'Anti-Immigrant' Sentiment in USby webdesk@voanews.com (William Gallo)
President Barack Obama on Thursday slammed what he said was the growing "anti-immigrant sentiment" in American politics, in what was seen as an implicit criticism of several high-profile Republican presidential candidates. Obama did not mention any candidate by name in his address to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, but he did denounce those in the Republican Party who are trying to reverse his efforts on immigration reform. "There's nowhere they want to go further backwards than on immigration," said the president, who noted his administration's progress on reducing the Latino unemployment rate and providing more health care to the minority group. Greatness 'doesn't come from walls' Although he did not address him by name, Obama appeared to direct some of his comments at Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has taken one of the toughest stances of any presidential candidate on illegal immigration. "You've got to realize that America's greatness doesn't come from building walls, our greatness comes from opportunity," Obama said. Trump, whose campaign slogan is "Make America Great Again," has vowed to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico to stop illegal border crossings. He has also been criticized for making a series of disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants. Clinton slams 'ugly rhetoric' Speaking before Obama took the stage, Hillary Clinton, who is leading the polls in the Democratic Party presidential primary, also took aim at Trump. "It's a problem when a leading Republican presidential candidate for president says that immigrants from Mexico are rapists and drug dealers," Clinton said. "It's a problem when candidates use offensive terms like 'anchor babies' or even talk about changing the Constitution to take citizenship away from those who were born here. "We need people who will stand up to this ugly rhetoric and extreme thinking, who will say with our words and our actions, basta, enough. End this," she said. Some Republican presidential hopefuls, including Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, say they want to revoke so-called "birthright citizenship," which automatically grants citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., including the children of undocumented immigrants. The 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads, in part, "All persons born . . . in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States.” The statements by Trump, Cruz and some others have made it even more difficult for Republicans who are struggling to attract enough support from minorities, including Latinos, who overwhelmingly voted for Obama over his Republican rivals in the 2008 and 2012 elections.
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While Russian cruise missiles were flying over Iran towards targets in Syria on Wednesday, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was delivering a strongly worded speech ruling out the need for further political dialogue with the US.
"Talking to the US will not hold any benefits for us," he told an audience of Revolutionary Guards. "On the contrary, it will be extremely detrimental."
It may not be a complete coincidence that the Ayatollah was addressing members of the Guards, the very same organisation now believed to be playing a key role in planning and supporting Russia's Syrian intervention.
To young Iranians buoyed up by the nuclear deal and already looking forward to the prospect of their country opening up to the West, the Ayatollah's remarks came as a blow.
But in the context of President Putin's latest moves, they seem less surprising.
Russia joining the war in Syria is a major boost to Iran's involvement in Syria.
It also adds weight to Iran's position as a key power in the Middle East.
For much of the past 15 months, there have been repeated sightings of the powerful Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani apparently shuttling between Damascus, Baghdad and Tehran.
It is now established that he has been playing a key role in setting up and supporting the Shia militia groups battling so-called Islamic State (IS) fighters in Iraq.
The recapture of the city of Tikrit from IS after a year of occupation marked a successful example of joint military action involving the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the mainly Shia militias and the Iraqi army.
In Syria too, Iranian support for the army and militia groups, including Tehran's ally Hezbollah, seems to be an open secret.
The Iranian media regularly report funerals of Revolutionary Guards commanders killed in Syria as well as Iraq.
And this summer's flood of refugees and migrants into Europe has included many young Afghan Hazaras, who have described to BBC Persian how they were recruited by Iran into special Shia militia brigades and sent to the front line in Syria.
Their stories back up claims widely reported and pictured on social media this year.
In July, Gen Soleimani apparently resurfaced in Russia where reports - neither confirmed nor denied by Tehran and Moscow - said he was beginning to put in place the plans that led to this week's Russian offensive.
Qasem Soleimani:
Born: 11 March 1957
Since 1998 he has been commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, reporting directly to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Has emerged from a lifetime in the shadows directing covert operations abroad to achieve almost celebrity status in Iran.
Since 2012 he has helped bolster the Syrian government, a key Iranian ally, during the Syrian civil war.
Also assisted in the command of combined Iraqi government and Shia militia forces that advanced against so-called Islamic State.
Visited Moscow in July to discuss possible Russian military intervention in Syria.
There has been no official comment from Tehran so far on the Russian operation.
But the tone of Iranian media reporting about it has been overwhelmingly positive, with much stress on the fact that it is happening as part of a joint coalition against IS, along with Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Russia's intervention means Iran is no longer the only foreign state to have militarily intervened in support of Bashar Assad.
It can now claim to be part of a major new military alliance with a former world superpower as an ally.
From the Iranian perspective, Russian intervention opens up a new possibility to challenge the US-dominated world order - something Iran's hardliners have dreamed of for decades.
But they are not the only ones celebrating Russia's intervention.
According to Ahmad Naqibzadeh, a professor of international relations at Tehran University, it's a development that also suits moderate politicians.
For them, he explains, Russia's decision to back Bashar Assad and attack all the groups opposing him means it's more likely all sides in the Syrian conflict will eventually have to come to the table - without pre-conditions - to find a political solution to the conflict.
"Convincing the West to stop insisting on the removal of Bashar Assad from power would be a victory for Iranian foreign policy and would then facilitate the normalisation of ties between Iran and the West," he told the BBC.
'Eternal enemy'
According to Mr Naqibzadeh, key policymakers around Iran's President Rouhani are also hoping the Russian campaign might actually bring the US and Iran closer together.
In a bid to persuade Iran not to throw everything behind Russia, they think the US could adopt a more conciliatory policy, he explains, and this would give Iran the opportunity the moderates are looking for to break out of the current isolation.
Judging by Ayatollah Khamenei's latest remarks, rapprochement with the US is the last thing on his mind.
An Iranian academic close to President Rouhani, and speaking to the BBC on condition of anonymity, says the idea of normalising ties between Iran and the US is something that deeply worries the Ayatollah.
"He believes the Americans are waiting for an 'Iran without Khamenei' in order to take Iran completely into their camp," the academic said.
The Ayatollah is the ultimate decision-maker in Iran's foreign policy, and he has made clear that he sees the US as an eternal enemy.
But the irony is not lost on many observers both inside and outside the country, that in order to combat one old enemy, the US, and to rescue his Syrian ally, Mr Khamenei is now turning to Russia, a country with which Iran shares a much longer history of adversity.
In the coming months, Iranians will be watching to see if the Ayatollah's gamble pays off, or whether Mr Putin's entry into the fray will draw Iran and its allies even deeper into the Syrian quagmire.
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BBC News |
Russia's Syrian bombing gives boost to Iran
BBC News While Russian cruise missiles were flying over Iran towards targets in Syria on Wednesday, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was delivering a strongly worded speech ruling out the need for further political dialogue with the US. "Talking ... and more » |
 RT |
Russian military operation in Syria bolsters oil market, domestic stocks
RT Surging crude has also strengthened the Russian stock market which has gained 7.5 percent in October. On Friday, the ruble-denominated MICEX index passed 1700 points for the first time since September 21. The dollar-traded RTS index is trading 1.66 ... and more » |
The Road From Donbas To Damascusby support@pangea-cms.com (Brian Whitmore)
If you think Russia's Syria intervention means Vladimir Putin is giving up on Ukraine, think again.
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Putin’s Syrian Gambit Slipping Out of Control, Shevtsova Saysby paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, October 9 – In Syria, Russian analyst Liliya Shevtsova argues, the world is confronted with a situation in which those behind these events have lost control of them and when each new step by Vladimir Putin “is leading to new consequences” which neither the Kremlin leader nor the West have been able to absorb.
It seems unlikely, she continues, that few in the Kremlin foresaw that Putin’s “Syrian gambit” would put Russia on a collision course with Sunni Muslims, who form 90 percent of the world of Islam (apostrophe.com.ua/article/world/middle-east/2015-10-08/otchayanie-putina-kreml-ne-mojet-proschitat-posledstviya-svoih-avantyur/2387).
But Putin is not the only one who has failed to consider the consequences of his actions, Shevtsova says. US President Barack Obama clearly failed to see that “his lack of a clear position on Asad would lead to the Syrian tragedy” and that a tragedy there could have even more serious consequences.
Now, things are getting worse. “The Kremlin is escalating the situation in order to force the West to accept its rules of the game – or at least to give the impression that it accepts its rules,” an effort at blackmail and intimidation which points to “confrontation with the most destructive consequences.”
That is because, Shevtsova points out, “no one knows where the red line is” – or whether “perhaps, it has already been crossed?”
One senses that Putin feels himself caught and is “trying to camouflage this by [further] demonstrations of force and decisiveness.” That in turn can lead to “the worst of all possible scenarios, when each improvisation leads to the need to correct the consequences of the previous improvisation.”
“Neither the Kremlin nor the West wants a deepening of the confrontation between the two. But blackmail and experiments with force create the threat of clashes,” Shevtsova says. And “this is a situation when an attempt to use military resources for political goals can lead to one in which the military resource leads to something beyond repair.”
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Obama to Visit Umpqua College Shooting Victimsby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
U.S. President Barack Obama begins a four-day visit to the West Coast Friday by meeting with the families of victims of last week's mass shooting in Roseburg, Oregon. Obama is set to meet with the families of the eight students and one instructor gunned down at Umpqua Community College last Thursday by a gunman, Christopher Harper-Mercer, who then took his own life. Protests are expected during the president's visit. Obama has been calling for stronger gun control laws in the aftermath of the shooting, and that call has grated on the nerves of the many gun advocates in the northwest U.S. where the school is located. Gun control White House officials have downplayed the president's gun control message in the lead-up to his visit. Spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that gun advocates "have nothing to fear." He added,"The fact is the president has made clear that the goal of his visit is to spend time with the families of those who are so deeply affected by this terrible tragedy." The shooting is the latest of a string of mass shootings that have taken place during Obama's presidency. He has repeatedly and ever more strongly called on lawmakers to pass stricter gun laws, but to no avail. At a news conference Thursday, Democratic Senate leaders called for an end to loopholes that allow buyers to get guns on the Internet and at gun shows without background checks. The proposal also calls for substantial improvements to the current background check system to better screen for those who are prevented from owning guns and pushes for bans of gun sales to those convicted of domestic abuse. Democrats are also seeking to end "straw purchases" — the practice of one person buying guns for another to evade legal restrictions. They also want better enforcement of laws against gun trafficking. Republicans in Congress insist on having no new laws restricting the purchase and ownership of guns, citing the Second Amendment to the Constitution that gives the right for Americans to "bear arms." Early Friday, a shooting at another university left one person dead and three others wounded. Few details have emerged from the incident at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, including whether students were involved. Authorities say the shooter is in custody.
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US to Detail Major Changes to Syrian Rebel Training Programby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
The Obama administration Friday will announce changes to a Pentagon program to train moderate Syrian rebel forces, said U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who added that the United States wants to focus efforts on working with Kurdish and other forces in Syria. Carter did not provide many details at a news conference in London with his British counterpart, Michael Fallon; but, a New York Times report said the U.S. will officially end a $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels who are fighting Islamic State militants in the country. “I wasn’t happy with the early efforts of the program," Carter said Friday. “So we have devised a number of different approaches." No more recruiting Citing a senior Defense Department official, The New York Times said there would no longer be any more recruiting of so-called moderate Syrian rebels to go through training programs in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. Instead, the unnamed official said, a much smaller training center would be set up in Turkey, where a small group of "enablers," mostly leaders of opposition groups, would be taught operational maneuvers like how to call in airstrikes. Carter said Friday the U.S. is committed to supporting "capable motivated forces on the ground to retake territory" from the Islamic State group. Sam Verma contributed to this report from Washington
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Refugees have started to travel to Norway through Russia, making a remote border an increasingly popular door to Europe for people fleeing war and persecution, or simply looking for a better life.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter signaled a new willingness to rethink the number of U.S. troops that should remain in Afghanistan after next year, echoing other leaders here who are open to extending the 14-year mission.
 WLKY Louisville |
Family of Walter Scott reaches $6.5M settlement with city officials
USA TODAY The family of Walter Scott, a black South Carolina man shot and killed by a police officer who is now facing murder charges, has come to a $6.5 million settlement with city officials. The North Charleston, S.C. city council approved the settlement ... City to Pay $6.5M Settlement to Family of Man Shot by CopABC News North Charleston Reaches $6.5-Million Settlement With Walter Scott's FamilyBuzzFeed News Walter Scott's family reaches $6.5 million settlement in SCKCRA Sacramento all 17 news articles » |
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Mexico’s defense secretary says the country’s army isn’t happy doing law enforcement duty, but has no other choice.
Russia’s intervention is lending credence to what is widely believed to be Mr. Assad’s ultimate aim: Leave only one opponent in the multisided war—Islamic State—and force the West to choose between the extremist group and his regime.
Nato should rehearse escalating from conventional to nuclear attacks for first time since the Cold War, diplomats say
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The Islamic State. Ebola. And now Putin in Syria. As Russia’s air campaign in the war-torn country dominates headlines, critics of the administration are once again questioning whether U.S. President Barack Obama has been slow to act on the Syrian conflict. VOA correspondent Aru Pande takes a look at what drives the president’s response to a crisis.
Originally published at - http://www.voanews.com/media/video/2997523.html
Originally published at - http://www.voanews.com/media/video/2997523.html
A photo taken from video published by the Russian Defense Ministry purports to show missile launches from the Caspian Sea to strike targets in Syria.
The state department spokesman, John Kirby, tells reporters that the US secretary of state spoke with the Russian foreign minister about the Syrian crisis. John Kerry expressed concern that Russia’s targets in Syria were not related to Islamic State
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According to the intelligence obtained by Russian Defense Ministry's General Staff, the Taliban have up to 70 percent of Afghanistan territory under their control.
Russia officially declared its intentions to intervene in the Syrian civil war only in September, but Moscow has been backing President Bashar al-Assad’s regime since the start of the conflict. Perhaps the most interesting part of Russia’s campaign in Syria is the current question of how far Moscow is prepared to go in its joint land operations with Iran and al-Assad. For example, is Russia planning to dispatch additional ground forces made up of specially trained Chechens to Syria?
Nearly all of Russia’s governors have expressed support for the Kremlin’s actions in Syria. Chechnya’s governor, Ramzan Kadyrov, stated that he fully supported the decision by the Russian leadership to use force in Syria to fight the Islamic State terrorist group. “I fully support the decision of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, about using the Russian the armed forces to fight terrorists in Syria,” Kadyrov posted on Instagram (Instagram.com, September 30). Kadyrov said Russia’s involvement in Syria would prevent the Islamic State from descending on Russian cities and villages. Once again, the governor of Chechnya offered his services to Putin.
While waiting to see whether Chechen special forces would be sent to Syria, Kadyrov held military exercises to show the military preparedness of his forces. On September 30, he looked in on his “Flying Squad” special forces unit, with his aide on cooperation with law enforcement agencies, Daniil Martynov, saying that “just in the past two weeks, the troops have made over forty parachute jumps. The troops acquired the experience of landing on mountain slopes, in the forest, and in deep snow. All officers have acquired the skills of carrying out special operations under a variety of conditions” (Lifenews.ru, September 30).
Two days later, on October 2, large-scale counterterrorist exercises were conducted in the village of Chervlyonnaya, in Chechnya’s Shelkovskoi district, with the participation of the regional police and the security services (Kavkazsky Uzel, October 2). In September, the Southern and the North Caucasian Federal Districts jointly held large-scale command post and special tactical exercises in Chechnya for the first time. Media coverage primarily focused on the counterterrorist part of the exercises (Chechnyatoday.com, September 17). The head of the Russian Ministry of Interior’s Support Division for the Activities of Special Forces and Aviation, Major-General Ivan Birnik, expressed high regard for the preparedness of the Chechen special forces. Birnik’s mission was to assess the ability of the Chechen forces to operate in Chechnya and the North Caucasus, as well as in a larger context inside Russia. It appears that the Russian officials were satisfied with what they saw in Chechnya and appreciated Kadyrov’s efforts to create special services units that are on a par with some of the best such units in the Russian armed forces.
Kadyrov has indicated that the Chechen special services carry out more operations than those officially reported. Chechnya’s governor said his government works outside Chechnya to identify terrorists and Islamic State recruiters. “We send people to fetch them from Syria. We return those who have not reached their destination and did not participate [in military action],” Kadyrov said (Rusnovosti.ru, October 2).
Although Kadyrov only mentioned his government’s efforts to return young Chechens from Syria, he may be using the same channels to find out about the Chechens who are fighting in the Middle East in the ranks of various groups of militants. According to Chechnya’s interior ministry, between 2013 and the summer of 2015, 405 individuals left the republic for Syria, at least 104 of whom were killed and 44 returned home (Kavkazsky Uzel, October 3).
Those are only the people the police and the Federal Security Service (FSB) have identified as participants in the conflict in Syria. In reality, the number of Chechens who went to Syria to fight is far larger because the security services have a hard time determining the whereabouts of everyone who has left Chechnya. All Chechens who fly from the North Caucasus to Istanbul come under suspicion automatically because Turkey is the transit point for many Muslims who want to join the militants in the Middle East. The Islamic State is one of the most popular groups among the Chechen recruits because a widely known Chechen, Umar Shishani (Tarkhan Batirashvili), plays an important role in the organization. The Caucasus Emirate of the Middle East is the second most attractive group to the Chechen recruits. This Middle Eastern branch of the Caucasus Emirate has been set up by another Chechen, Salahudin (Faizulla Margoshvili). The third most popular group of militants is Junud al-Sham, which is led by another Chechen, Amir Muslim (Muslim Margoshvili). Junud al-Sham is especially appealing to Chechen recruits from Europe. The fourth-most popular group, Ajnad Kavkaz, is also rapidly growing. It is under the command of another famous Chechen in Syria, Amir Abdul-Khakim (Rustam Azhiev).
Since the official start of Russia’s military involvement in Syria to back President al-Assad’s embattled Alawite-dominated regime, Ramzan Kadyrov has stated almost daily that his forces should be sent to the Middle East. However, if Kadyrov’s forces turn up in Syria, Chechnya’s governor will collide with all the Sunni Muslim leaders in the Middle East who have maintained friendly relations with him. By siding with the Alawites, Russia is essentially challenging the Sunnis, including Russia’s Muslims, 99.99 percent of whom are Sunni. The conflict in Syria, therefore, could have a great impact on the North Caucasus and Russian Muslims in general, and in ways that are completely unpredictable.
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Reports are circulating that Sabrina De Sousa, a former CIA officer, has been arrested in Portugal. De Sousa was among the many CIA employees prosecuted and convicted in absentia by an Italian prosecutor, based on the Abu Omar rendition (from Milan to Egypt). She has denied involvement in that operation, and has garnered considerable attention in the past for urging that blame instead be fixed on senior CIA officials. De Sousa's twitter feed (see the snapshot above) states that she is not actually in detention at the moment (circa 10 a.m. eastern time today, that is), and includes the hashtag #scapegoatery.
The situation at first blush appears similar to what occurred in 2013 when Robert Seldon Lady, also convicted in absentia for the Abu Omar rendition, was arrested in Panama. Lady was freed the next day, however, and it remains to be seen whether something similar will occur with De Sousa. In this regard, it is perhaps worth noting that De Sousa has garnered attention in the past not just for denying involvement in the Abu Omar rendition but also for calling for action to be taken against senior CIA officials for planning rendition oepration (the twitter snapshot above, you will notice, includes such a call and concludes with the hashtage #scapegoatery). Whatever happens next, though, the fundamental point about this development is that it underscores the capacity of foreign governments to impose real consequences on individual U.S. personnel linked to national security activities that those governments view as illegal, at least in some circumstances.
Today's Headlines and Commentaryby Elina Saxena, Cody M. Poplin
Russia and Syria continue their coordinated air and ground operations against anti-Assad forces in the Idlib and Hama provinces in what one Syrian official referred to as a large offensive to reclaimwestern Syria from rebel factions. And while Russia initially declared its operation to be against the Islamic State, the offensive is largely concentrated in regions held by a coalition of rebel groups which includes the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra front.
After a week of airstrikes, the Guardian reports that only 10 percent of Russian strikes have targeted the Islamic State. Following accusations that Russian forces were striking U.S.-backed rebel groups in Syria, the Russian foreign ministry suggested that “Moscow was willing to establish contact with the Free Syrian Army - a Western-backed rebel group - to discuss fighting IS ‘and other terrorist groups’.”
Russia’s bravado may be backfiring though. Yesterday, the country surprised military officials by launching 26 cruise vessels from ships based in the Caspian Sea. A U.S. official suggested that Russia’s launching of “26 Kaliber sea-based cruise missiles at 11 targets” is a part of Russian propaganda aimed at demonstrating that Russia has a modern military. The Russian Defense Ministry even released a video showing the cruise missiles being launched and claimed that the missiles destroyed “weapons factories, arms dumps, command centers and training camps supporting Islamic State forces,” all with no civilian casualties. According to McClatchy, the strikes were the longest-range attack by Russian forces in modern history.” Yet today, CNN reports that a number of cruise missiles launched from those same positions have veered off course and crashed in Iran.
The Journal writes that U.S. officials have “ruled out strategic collaboration with Moscow” in light of the “burgeoning Russian military campaign based on land, air and sea that is at odds with U.S. goals” The Times discusses the shift in language used by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter as “the Russians are seeking greater cooperation, and frankly [the United States does not] want that greater cooperation.” Even so, at least one U.S. plane was forced to reroute to avoid a Russian warplane, highlighting “the Pentagon's interest in talking further to Russian officials about ways to avoid accidents and potential unintended conflict in the skies over Syria.”
NATO defense ministers are meeting in Brussels, where discussions are anticipated to focus largely on Syria and the “troubling escalation of Russian military activities,” the Washington Postsays. The Journal writes that the “ministers began a one-day meeting with tough language aimed at Russia’s escalation in Syria, but there is still little clarity on what the alliance can do to ratchet down growing tensions. The discussions follow Russian incursions into Turkish airspace; the incident prompted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to reaffirm, as the Post reports, that the alliance is “able and ready to defend all allies, including Turkey, against any threat.” He alsoexpressed willingness to send in ground forces to defend Turkey should the need arise. Reuters also discusses Turkey’s concern over plans to withdraw the NATO deployed Patriot batteries. NATO deployed the batteries in 2013 to protect Turkey from potential incoming ballistic missiles fired by Syria’s Bashar al Assad, but are scheduled to be withdrawn in the coming months.
Meanwhile, Turkey has warned that Russia’s military involvement in Syria could weaken trade relations between the two countries. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey could seek gas from another source in light of what he calls Russia’s “unacceptable” military actions.
With the potential for so much loss, Foreign Policy sheds light on why Putin is so concerned about keeping Bashar al Assad in power, suggesting that the lack of a decisive U.S. policy in the Middle East was pushing regional leaders closer to the “steadfast” Russia. One expert says in the Foreign Policy piece that “the region is falling apart, and states are collapsing, and the Russians are willing to intervene to protect their interests and assert their power, and the United States is not.”
U.S. lawmakers are questioning potential intelligence lapses about Russia’s intervention in the Syrian conflict, the scope of Russian operations, and their intent in Syria. The news comes amidst concerns over blindspots in American intelligence from this past year, including the surprise Russian takeover of Crimea.
Fox News reports that Russian fighter jets have “shadowed” U.S. predator drones flying over Syria on three separate occasions this week. One official told Fox that “the first time it happened, we thought the Russians got lucky. Then it happened two more times.”
Supported by U.S. airstrikes, Iraqi forces have recaptured Ramadi from Islamic State control. Al Jazeera describes the operations that the Iraqi military has undertaken to defeat ISIS.
The Guardian writes that the Islamic State is ransoming 200 Assyrian men for over $100,000 each.While human trafficking and extortion have long been money-making tools for ISIS, Vice Newsreveals that a recently leaked Islamic State budget may provide more detail on how the group funds its activities.
Yesterday, President Obama issued a direct apology to the head of Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, over the attack in Kunduz. The apology comes after release of the group's statement, which claimed that, by seeking to justify the bombing of MSF's Kunduz hospital on the mere allegation of Taliban members being present there, the governments of Afghanistan effectively had admitted to committing a war crime. The group continues to call for an independent investigation of the attack. MSF also stated that 33 people are still unaccounted for following the bombings, and the Times reports that the death toll may rise. MSF’s general director called the attack “a grave violation of international humanitarian law, not just an attack on [their] hospital, but an attack on the Geneva Conventions as well.”
Tensions continue to rise in Israel as the Times reports that violence has spread beyond Jerusalem and the West Bank into Tel Aviv and southern Israel. In Tel Aviv, an Israeli soldier and three civilians were stabbed by a 19-year-old Palestinian man. In the West Bank, 300 Palestinian students protested "in solidarity with Al Aqsa," referring to the shared holy site that has been at the heart of recent tensions. The students clashed with Israeli security forces, and over a dozen were injured. As incidents of Palestinian stabbings increase, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the escalation as a “wave of terror” and warned that “civilians are at the forefront of the war against terrorism and must also be on maximum alert.” Netanyahu also banned politicians from entering the Temple Mount—where another Palestinian stabbed Israeli citizens—over fears of further violence. On account of the escalating violence, Netanyahu has cancelled the German-Israeli Summit meant to commemorate 50 years of diplomatic ties.
Haaretz suggests that Netanyahu rejected demands to announce the construction of new West Bank settlements over concerns that such an announcement could threaten U.S.-Israeli discussions regarding plans to bolster Israel’s military.
In Yemen, a Saudi airstrike struck another wedding, this time killing 23 people. The airstrike was the second on a wedding party in Yemen in just over a week. Yet while casualties in the war mount, Reuters writes that Yemen’s President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi dismissed the Houthis’ acceptance of a UN peace agreement as a “maneuver” and called for the group to announces its “willingness to implement all articles of the [UN] resolution without changes.”
Suicide bombers in Nigeria have killed 17 people, according to a spokesman for the governor of Yobe state. While the group has yet to claim responsibility, all indicators suggest that the three attacks were likely carried out by Boko Haram. Reuters has more.
The BBC reports that al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for an attack by armed gunmen that killed Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s nephew in the streets of Mogadishu.
Some good news: the BBC also reports that the three west African countries at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak have recorded their first week with no new cases since March 2014.
Pivoting to the South China Sea: Confirming an earlier report from Dan de Luce of Foreign Policy, Reuters shares that the United States is considering conducting freedom of the seas operations close to China’s artificial islands in the Spratly Islands chain. A U.S. defense official said that the U.S. navy will sail within the 12-nautical-mile zones around the islands, which China considers sovereign territory. The operations are expected to occur within the next two weeks.
More breaking news about China comes from Financial Times, which reports that three state-owned Chinese firms benefited from trade secrets stolen by the People’s Liberation Army as part of cases linked to the 2014 U.S. indictments of five PLA officers. The three companies are Chinalco, the biggest aluminium company in China, Baosteel, a large steelmaker, and SNPTC, a nuclear power company. Previously, the Obama administration has threatened to apply sanctions to companies that benefit from commercial espionage. It remains unclear whether this is the first step in that process.
Yesterday, Hillary Clinton came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that she had previously “championed while serving as secretary of state,” according to the Post. Secretary Clintonalso praised the deal in her book, Hard Choices. The deal is seen as a critical element to President Barack Obama’s pivot to Asia, but has been opposed by labor groups who fear it will hurt American jobs.
The ICC said yesterday that its prosecutor plans to investigate possible war crimes committed in the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia. The initiative must now be approved by the court’s judges, which is already considering whether or not to open an investigation into crimes committed in Ukraine. Reuters carries the report.
The United Nations came under fire yesterday when it announced that it has not yet launched an internal investigation into allegations that a former General Assembly president had accepted bribes.According to the world body, it does not have the authority to investigate individuals or entities that are not official U.N. staff. The United Nations have suffered from accusations of corruption for years. The Wall Street Journal has more.
Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) shocked members of his own party today, announcing that he will drop out of the the race to replace John Boehner (R-OH) as Speaker of the House. The Times reports that McCarthy’s campaign was hurt when he suggested that the House committee investigating Benghazi was designed to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The U.S. Senate passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) yesterday, sending it along for a likely veto by President Barack Obama. The Senate voted 70-27 to approve the bill, authorizing $612 billion in defense spending this fiscal year. The Washington Post has more, noting that while the Senate passed the measure with a veto-proof majority, the House will not be able to reach the necessary two-thirds majority.
Elsewhere on the Hill, Defense One shares that the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) will arrive back on the Senate floor after next week’s recess, according to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr and Vice-Chair Dianne Feinstein. The bill is designed to create incentives for private companies to share cyber-threat information with other companies and the government, but privacy activists have criticized the measure because they say it does not go far enough to protect personal data.
2016 presidential campaign interlude: Motherboard reports that while bragging about helping the NSA, Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina may have revealed classified information. According to Fiorina, she redirected truckloads of HP servers to the NSA after 9/11 so that the agency could implement its warrantless wiretapping program.
The Miami Herald reports that the Periodic Review Board has cleared Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohammed Kamin, “an Afghan man who is considered ‘one of the most compliant detainees’ at the detention center.” Charges against Kamin were dropped in 2009. 54 of the remaining 114 detainees are now cleared for release.
Parting shot: Wired provides “a brief history of the end of the comments” section on websites. It’s a long overdue death. Lawfare, long a pioneer in this regard, welcomes other outlets to the comment-free lifestyle.
ICYMI: Yesterday, on Lawfare
Aaron Zelin shared the latest Jihadology Podcast, which features Thomas Joscelyn on the Khorasan Group in Syria and what its actions tell us about al Qaeda’s strategy in the region.
In the wake of the ECJ’s decision, Timothy Edgar argued that surveillance reform is our only hope for reviving safe harbor.
Finally, Michael Barnett suggested it’s time to focus on Palestinian rights instead of just a Palestinian state.
Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us onTwitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Sign up to receive Lawfare in your inbox. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.
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American officials said some of the cruise missiles fired from Russian warships in the Caspian Say fell in a rural area of Iran, and did not reach targets in Syria.
On Russian TV -- breathtaking video of missiles launched from Russian ships in the Caspian Sea, streaking into the night sky, racing almost a thousand miles to their targets in Syria, exploding, the reporter boasts, no more than nine feet from their targets.
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